SouthCoast Today
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In October 2015, a visionary group of multidisciplinary artists woke the monster. At present, they woo the maritime world.
The acronymic MASARY Studios derives is name from the first two letters of the first names of the triad that cofounded the collective – percussionist, composer and educator Maria Finkelmeir, media artist, designer and 3-D animator Sam Okerstrom-Lang (a.k.a. Samo), and sound and installation artist Ryan Edwards.
The original work was “Waking the Monster,” a reference to one of Boston’s most iconic structures, the left field wall at Fenway Park, commonly referred to by baseball fans as the Green Monster. For Boston’s first Illuminus Festival, the artists reimagined it as a three-story instrument.
Nine percussionists were situated throughout the belly of the beast to perform six original compositions, at points accompanied by a violinist / singer, a trombone ensemble and a dj and drummer duo. The music interacted with animation, and changed from piece to piece, with variations in color scheme, visual themes and movement.
More recently, MASARY Studios has worked with DATMA (Design Art Technology Massachusetts), LuminArtz, and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center to produce and display “Vessels,” a celebration of the significant role that the New Bedford fishing industry plays in the local community and the global economy.
As part of DATMA’s 2020 collaborative theme of light, MASARY Studios will be projecting large-scale digital animation murals, coupled with original sound scores that highlight the men and women that work the sea. And their boats.
By looking at ships as grand characters in the story of the port of New Bedford, the MASARY artists note that the work is “an abstraction and aesthetic reconsideration of what is a ubiquitous expression of the local landscape.”